
Pa3 




|Jr00fe CoHsitrewl)^ 



OF THE 



(tardr S^citlenient of %vMt bii i\n ^iitcli 



BEING AN 

APPENDIX 

TO 






On page 47 of Dc JJcnstcr's Dutfl) at tljc NortI) jpoU 
anb Pntrl) in illainc, the date of ''1632" is set down as 
that of the fh-st actual Dutch settlement in Maine. The 
authority referred to therein has never since been found, 
although diligently sought for by tlie Avriter on a su))- 
sequent visit to the coast of Acadie. (Me.) The death of 
"old settlers" and our people's carelessness with regard 
to papers are fast destroying evidences, of which former 
chroniclers availed themselves copiously. Williamson 
visited different localities, conversed with "old settlers," 
learned traditions, embodied verbal and written narra- 
tives, and thus compiled his valual)le histor}'. The 
neph(nv of that historian remarked in conversation, 
that Sullivan possessed himself of, and resorted liberally - 
to sources of information no longer in existence when 
his uncle took up his pen. 

Proofs, however, are by no means wanting, that the 
Dutcli were in Maine prior to 1G32. 

Let us examine them in order: 

The French claimed as far west as Pemaquid or Bris- 
tol, and the Dutcl) were continually interfering with 



their claiins. mid Winsi.ow wcnl ii> tJiKjhiiiil to ('<mi|)l:iiii 
against Ix^th ol'tliosi' nalioiis as early as 1(!."{."). 

In lOOT. (;i:()1{(;k. hrotlicr of I.nid .Ioiin Poi-h am. 
Chief" Justice tA' Knglaiiil. Inuiulcd S(it/a</ti//'ir colony. 
un the Keinu'ln'r. 'I'liis lailt'd. l)ut Wii.i.i \.m>on records 
"that the i-onsts were ni'\<T ari('i'\v:ii'ds. lor any consi(i- 
orable leng-tli of time, enlii-ely desei'ted i)y i'jiro|>ean<. 
until the country hecam*' x'ttled." (I. 20."{.) 

HrKnAlfi* s Nt'W VA. ."IT. >;i\s. ■tlic l-'rcnrh wrre hcit* 
(^160H) soon :d"t('i' l'oi'il\M< |);iit\ Icl'l llic place." — 
Gorges' I list. ID,—:) I', i, ■<•!,, is, lS2S.---/V/"//mv.sM ////. 2'). 
These rt'Terences are from Willianismi. (I. "JO.").) 

And we know that tlif Dutfl)did imt leave the Frimcli 
in (juiet in these waters, for. in the same yeai'. KK)". 
the French e<»mniandant. oi' uoNciMior, and council at 
Port liDiiiil. \\{\\\ .\ iiiiiijHilis^ in Xora Srofifi, received 
intellii>:ence (Williamson. I.. 204.) ■■\)\ an eai'h arri\ al 
in the -prini;- (KIOT). of a transiction which j)r(-»\ed 
/atnl to the colony. Thi'- was ;iii ollicinl i-eport that 
the t)ollaililcr6. piloted l)y ;i treacherous Fr(Mielinian. 
had olitnided themselves into the ("niiada | i. e. .Veadie 
oi' .Maine | fur trade. " 

A Fri'iir/iii/iiit highly di>liniiiii>hed loi' his \-irtin*ri 
and accoiiiplishments — the Di'kk dk i.a KocHKFoit ai i.t 
LiA.Nconrr. in the lid \ <^lu)ne of his 7'/V7/v'/,s-, at pa^es 
-165- (1, (4to. iiOiidon. IT!M))says: "Sonie attem))ts to 
settle a colony in this])lace. in the vicinii\- of \r/r <\i,s- 
tle, were made l)y the Dutrl) in 1(!2.'>. and cri'ii <it Ihr 
tarlji ppr/tx/ nj' MldT. Imt without cU'ect." W^illiam- 
son (l.'J'JS. cj) al-o rel"er> to 1 h itit akds Naiiatix »>. j*. Hod. 
l>nt the writer having examiiH'd all this authoi'"s work^ 
on New I'jigland. can Hnd no mention of these cAents. 
Williamson, howcxer. ina\" have seen an orii^inal tnaiin 
icripl (»n t hi^ >ui»jeet. 

A Krenchman. in this regaid. is a most I'cliaMe witness?, 



for lie lias no partialities of i-ace or religion to gratify by 
eonceding any achievement creditable to the Putii). This 
renders their i)i-esence in Maine an absolnte certainty, 
since all that was required was to substantiate the cir- 
cumstantial evidence by the slightest reliable records. 

These are the i'w^t (Jcjir/ife nimouncements which are 
to be found at this day in print, of the arrival of the 
iDtitcl) upon the coast of Maine. 

Cyrus Eatox, in his ^'Annals of the To'w/i of Warren^ 
with the Early History of -SV. George h, Broad Bay, and 
the neighboring settlements on the Waldo Paterd. Hal- 
lowell, 1851, page 17-8, % 11523,'^ &c. reads— 

•'Fishermen and settlei's also established themselves 
about this time at Sagadahoc, Merrg-MeeMng^ Cape 
Neivagin^ Femaquid, and *S7. (jeorgea^ as well as at 
Damariscove and other islands ; though at -.SY. George's 
it is believed there were not as yet any permanent re- 
sidents. Adventurers from othei* nations also frequented 
the coast ; and if is said, that the T)\\{i\y as early as 1607, 
and again in 1625, attempted to settle at Daniariseotta. 
Cellars and chiirnieys, appareirfly of grcal autifiuity, 
laive been foaii.d in the toani of Xe/vcastle ; and cop- 
per knives and spoons, of antique and singular fashion, 
are occasionally dug up A^ ith tlie supjxjsed Indian skel- 
etons, at the present day, indicating an earl}- inter- 
course between the natives of the two continents. 
Similar utensils, and the fonndatiovR of chimneys^ now 
many feet nnder gronnd, hare also tteen discovered on 
Moi^hegan, as /reft as oh (Utrrcrs /stand at the en- 
trance of St. Georges Hirer, Avherc are said to be 
also the remains of a stone house." 

Among the remarkable Oyster Banks, on both sides 
of the Dainariscotta River, (according to E. Rollins 
and M. Davis,) cited b)- Williamson, [L. 56 — Text 
and Note,*] ''skeletons and bones of human beings are 



t 

IoiiimI. ■ yd m> Iraditidii .-iltout lIuMii li<-i< (•oinc tn the 
jh'OmmiI liciu'ratioii. 

All thi< ir()('< \n i-('?)rl(M" tin* i''i'ciicli Duke's roiii;n"k< ;i 
rfitiiiiil \'. 

Let U'^ cxaiuiiic these iiuitters in ordei •: 
First, wheji the Kiif^'lisli made tlieir first settlement 
at f'riiKitinid oi- />ri.sf(>/. wliieh was planted before that 
at Itosftui. {>\\AAv\s. i>. h">!.) in I (>'23-'!24, they found 
V(^sti/i^es of a [)reviuus attempt at colonization, wliieli. 
takin<;- «'verythinic into aeeount, points to tlir Dntri) as 
their anthors. Wherever tliey sotth'd. their iirst labor 
was. if piactieable. the eonstruetioii of canals and tlie 
assimilation of their new homes to the dear ones tliey 
had left ill the Low ( 'oiiiiti-ies. Mven in Java, at ihe 
risk of introduein^LT, in their coiiipaiiy. the deadly jungle 
lexers. the\' intersected their infant metropolis with 
canals. 

(Irani ihut tlii- i- in a mea>iire conjeetinal ; Batons 
investiL'"ati<tiis aloiie (without what has gone before and 
without lie la Koehefoncault bianeourt's assurances, 
ti'an^miite it almost into a eertaintv. 

"The earliest settlements seem to have been on the 
we-tein banks of the l*(')in((iiiiil /tirrr, in IG'J.'J oi" "4. 
* ■'•■ ■•■" A fort was built there, the vear before the 
date "f ilic piiicnt, and I'itled b\' pirates in \ovenibei-, 
lf>."!"_'. bnrnial posses-ion was given and taken nnder 
ihe >ame iii-trumenl. Ma\' 'J7, \i')'-\'.\. ''' '" '" '" 'I'lie 
\isitant>. a-- ancII a- inhabitant-, wei'e JiighK' pleased 
with the -iiiiatiou of /*riini(/in'il. A smooth |•i^•er. nav- 
igalih' a h-agiie and a half abo\c the ])oint, a commo- 
dious ha\'en for ships, and an eligible site for a fortress, 
Ml oiicc lillc(l the eye. Here was a eanal cut lO feet 
ill width. ;iiid \-arioii<Iy (\m^y from (I to 10 feet, on the 
eiisl -ide of I he ri\ci' which passes the lirsi ripples." — 
( dl \\:i- 'JO ro(b ill length; and |)a>-e(l down a snu)oth 



5 



inclined plain [plane |. No water runs ihoi-e at pre- 
sent.") — -''an enterprise devised and finished, a,l a time 
and l)y hands unknown."' (Williamson, !., 242.) 

"Below the Fort" ( Frederic or WiJliam Henry, pi-e- 
viously Fort (jeorije,) "'was a handsomely paved sti'eet, 
extending towards it, northwestwardly irom the water, 
(jO rods. It is still to be seen ; and like the eaiial, it is 
the work of ludmoim hands/' (Willi a.mson, I., .")7.) 

Patient investigation ol" all the eonenn'ent eii'cum- 
stanees, and cool reflection, lead the writei- t(t assio-n 
these labors to the tDutfi}. 

'The History of Qeonjetown^' — (originally situated 
on both sides of the river, but now divided thereby 
into Georyetoiuu and Bath) — is "the liistorj^"' says Sfl- 
LiVAX, page 1G9, "of the river KeuJieher.'- 

On an island, already spoken of, called iSta</e Ji^laitd^ 
was the landing place of Popham's party, in I GOT. 
G<n'ernor AVinthrop says they came in 1609. 0(ijLBY, 
in his collection, which he made in the year KJTl, says, 
that they landed on the west side of the river, on a 
peninsula, and there began a plantation. JIitbbard — 
(whose book is very rare and costly) — says, that a 
party came from England, and settled at Kennebec, in 
the year 1G19. Soon after PophamV party left the 
river, in IGOH, the Froich fooix jxis-st'ssionof if. In the 
year IGlo, Sir Samukl Aiuiall went fi'om Viryinia 
and I'emoved thenh On flie i.^land are the rentr/in.s of 
a fori, sereral wel/fi of /cafer, and ,several cellar.') ; l/ie 
remains al.^o of hriek cJtiinneyfi have been found ikere^ 
(rnd it is very clear th<d the bricks loMch tvere used in 
the hnildinys must have been hronyh.t from Uwope. On 
the west side of the river are the remains of a fort, made 
of stone and earth: there are also eiii'ht old walls now 
to be seen, and the rniiis of several houses. Whether 
these buildinys were ereeted by flie Enylish. or by the 



6 
French, is mtn^rfnin ; l)Ut tlio |)rrihal)ility i>. ihnt the 
formor were tho creciors ul tlic works.' (Sillivan. 
pages 1G1)-170.) 

"*SY<f</<' Island, in tlie Disiric-t ol' Maiiic, lit's south of 
Parkers and Arruwsike islands, on the North side *»i' 
Small Point, consistinf;: of 8 acri's. n<»l capable nf nmcli 
improvement ; and is only rciiKirkidih' for heiinj thr first 
land inhaljited in, Metr Enylund, t,ij n ricilized people. 
It is not non- inhabited." (M(m;sk"s Ameriron Gazetteer. 
Boston. ITilT.) 

Why should it be more pi'obable that tli(^ English 
were the architects than that the Dntfl) wri'c the fiibri- 
cators ? It is well kimun that tiic Dutfli. in ibis coun- 
try, were larire importers n\' brick jbi- building pur- 
poses, and may have ballasted therewith vessels fitted 
out for discovery. Sii.i.inan tell- us. in a note, at page 
170. tiiat he >aw these icmains. causing: the trround to 
be opened, in 1T7S.'' Xo/r, had the //rirks liem En(jtish. 
he could have casi/f/ rrr(j(/niz<'</ fhcm luj compurison. 
The French resoi'ti'd to the materials at hand fbi- iheir 
constructions ; whereas the Dutrl) — besides com inii iVom 
a land destitute of stone — wei"e exceedinglv partial to 
brick, and their o/rn l)riek. All these things consider- 
ed, the probabilities are lai' greater in llixnr of the 
Dutfl) than of aii\' otln-r people. 

Second, ('(irrrr s l.slitnd. neai' the \\('>t l>anl< of the 
mouth of SI. (/cort/c's Hirer — whieh flows up to jjinious 
lime-jjr<»dm-in(i TiioiiKisloii -olVcr.^ I'oi- the investigation 
of the antirpiai'ian sonn- \-er\- interesting icniains. 
There are said to l)e the a)ipearanees of a \rv\ ;ineient 
settlenuMit. Monhciinii or MKid/ci/in. :it the extrenu' 
western mouth of Pi'iuilix<-<if /Id//, has als(» unexplained 
vestiges of jbi-inei" oeeupam'\ . This was. without (.-x 
ception. tw.t hundi'ed and >i.\i\ \ears ago. the nio^l 
famtnis i'-land on ihe x'ldtojird of Mnine. ""Ttie island 



7 

of MafmicKfi was inhabited very early, and ''remains of 
stone houses nre still apparent, generally supposed to 
have been i)uilt by Fi'ench or Dutflj lishernien." ''though 
unknown." ( Wilijamson, 1., ()l}-'4.) 

Finally, to sum up, considei' the "Ap].)ointnient of 
the installation of ([lornclis Stcenuinrk, and the faet that 
the Dntfl), aeeording to Sullivan's own athnission, in 
167;i or '4. expelknl the Freneh and made themselves 
masters of that very countiy, whieh eoniprehended all 
the settlements to whieh we have allnded. The same 
aiithoi- admits that the Freneh elaimed to the Pemaquid, 
and all historians eoneede that they elaimed between 
40 deg. and 4(1 deg. ol' iiorthern latitude, and exerci- 
sed iurisdietioii over the whole countrv iz-enerallv known 
as Acadw or Maiiie. What took th(? ?Dutr() there ? They 
were not given to poaehing upon other inen's manors, 
but wei'e fiereely tenacious of their own, and vindica- 
ted their rights at times, with a determination whieh 
bordered, thouofh I'arelv, on feroeitv. But had thev 
not suffered too deeply fnmi the Spaniards, and other 
would-be oppressors, to be called upon to suffer any 
longer willingly V The English, on the other hand, 
were apt disciples of that School which taught "con- 
veying'' into tlieir own pockets, ship's holds and juris- 
diction, any lands, &c., in the power of nations too weak 
or too sluggish to resist their encroachments. If the 
©utfl) (lid settle the eoast of Maine, 1607 to 16:52, and 
were driven thence eithei" by famine, the natives, the 
I^nglish. or the French, tliey had a I'ight to seek to es- 
tablish themselves in theii- ancient possessions, vso hardly 
won. What was good to be taken, was also good to be 
retaken. This was sound English doctrine, and had a 
royal authority in (teoh(JR lb, in his letter of advice to 
the Empress Mahi.\ Thkuksa, with regard to the ag- 
gressions of Fkedehm the Great. The waiter feels 



assured, ii<»l onlv lli:it tlic Putil) were ilic nri^-jiKil set- 
tlers at diirereiil jjoiuts ui' the coast of .Maine. l)Ul also 
indulges his suspicions that the early Massachusetts and 
vYnglo-Maine people knew the facts, had tlio ])roofs, 
and suppressed them. Engli-sh historians' veiy a^■oid- 
ance of the subject, their vague intimations and • |)rol)a- 
bilities," all tend to instill such an idea. To admit the 
claims of the Dutd) as the original coloni.sts, was lo 
invalidate their own. May tlie documents yet be found 
substantiating that Accidie was WnUl] betbre an h'nglish 
eye looked upon her evergreen forests, or pressed her 
mossy shores! 

The subsequent connection of the Duld) with Maine has 
been narrated at lengdi in the "Paper," read 3d March, J857, 
before the Nero IJovU tjistorical GocictTi. 

At page 5(3 — reference is made to the settlement of New 
Pl^'moud). 

linikkcrbaklicrs should never forget that the Puritan col- 
onists came from i^oUailb and intended to settle upon die 
^nbson. They having made a mistake in the quality ol' die 
territory where they located themselves, cliarged the \'a\\\\ 
upon the Dutcii, wjioin they accused of bribing their Cjq)t;tin 
to misdirect them. Of this they had no proof, and we hnve 
just as much right to believe that they sought the shores of 
Acadie, having heard of the availabilities of the Kiimebec 
and Penobscot as well as of the Hudson, for die Dutch had 
actually attempted to settle between the first two rivers be- 
fore they discovered the ihirtl. 

At page 56 — reference is had to the cession or gnioi of a 
district of Maine to the Duke of Vork, allerwaids Jaiiie.'^ 11. 
By this, in JGG4, the County of New Castle in Maine became 
appendant to his Province of New York, and his governors 
and agents were invested with jurisdiction o\er the lerritorv 
between the St. Croi.x and the Kennebec, as well as ihr Dulcl] 
settlements on the Hudson and Delaware. 

Eaton, Pages 21~'2, rearls widi regard iluM-eio : 

"The Duke caused ;i city named .Janiesiown, and fori, 



9 
called fort Charles, to be built at Pemaquid,and many Dutch 
families to be transported thither from New York. Consid- 
erable uneasiness was occasioned to these eastern settlements 
by the war declared b}' France in 1666, and by the recession 
of Acadia to France b}' the treaty of peace in 1667. How- 
ever disagreeable, the French were allowed to take posses- 
sion as far as the Penobscot ; but on their demandingthe rest 
of the Province as far as Sagadahoc, the people of Pemaquid 
and vicinity, averse to the jurisdiction of France, preferred 
coming under that of Massachusetts." 

This averseness is by no means to be wondered at when 
we recollect what sufferings the Dutch protestants at homo 
had suffered at the hands of the Romanists, who, whether 
Spanish or French, were equally inimical to those of the truly 
reformed Saxon Evangelical Church. 

"After this pacification" of 1688,resumes Eaton, (26)"till the 
abdication of James lid, the arbitrary conduct of the agents 
sent by his deputy at New York for the management of affairs 
here, gave little encouragement for the re-settlement of the 
country ; but many Slutd) famihes were induced to settle at 
Pemaquid and on the west bank of the Damariscotta, icho, 
at the latter place, then called New Dartmouth, novv New- 
castle, entered iq) on the business of agriculture loith such spirit and , 
success as to gain for the settlement the name of "the garden of 
THE EAST." In 1688 Sir Edmund Andros made two expe- 
ditions to this quarter, in the first of which he attempted to 
take possession of the coimtry east of the Penobscot, but 
contented himself with plundering the Baron de Castine of" 
his goods, furniture and ammunition. This affiair irritating 
the Baron, led the tribe, over which his influence extended, 
to unite with the Abenaques in a second Indian war, which 
in August, of that year, was begun by an attack on N. Yar- 
mouth. In September, New Dartmouth was burnt, and the 
inhabitants, with the exception of two families taken prison- 
ers, saved themselves only by taking refuge in the fort. At 
the same time the fort and buildings at Sheepscot were also 
destroyed and the settlements entirely broken up. The 
IHIUtcl) settlers, discouraged, left the country ; and both pla- 



10 

res, so lately and so long inhabited and flonrishing, lav waste 
about thirty ^-ears." 

At |)age 47, D. in i\\, uiciiLion is made ol a subsccjUcnL 
accession of German settlements at Broad Bay. A great 
many Germans were induced to remove thither and to iho 
parts conterminous by (ieneral Samuel VV/Vldo, many of 
whom in 1750 established themselves on what was then, and 
is still, known as Dnid) ^^ccl^. The original Dutd) colonists, 
1)1" whom but tew survived the intemperateness of the cli- 
mate, the assaults of the priest-instigated Indians, and the 
other [nanifold vicissitudes of an exposed north-eastern fron- 
tier life, were soon lost sight oi" among the more numerous 
Germans or High Dutch who were induced to take up their 
abode on the Waldo jjatent; yet, notwithstanding, they made 
an indelible and honorable mark on the history and upon the 
map of Maitie. 

Some farther interesting Uiutlcr with regard Lo tlie j^olliinb- 
crs, ill our most eastern state, }nai/ be found in the "Papers 
relating to Pcmaqlliii and parts adjacent in the present state 
of Maine, known as Cornwall county when under the colon}' 
of New York, Compiled from Official Ilecords in the office of 
the Secretary of State at Albany, N. Y., by Franklin B. 
Hough, 1851," and tiie "Ancient Pemacjuid, an historical re- 
view, prepared at the recjuest of the Maine Historical Societj' 
for its Collections, by J. Wingate Thornton," both published 
ui the \'lli voknne of the Collections of the Maine Historical 
Society ; funds having been provided by the Legislature of 
that state to transcribe and print tlie san)e. 

But, besides these, there is still a vast amouiil of manu- 
scripts to be examined at Albany, which should throw a ffood 
of light upon this interesting subject. The following, an ex- 
tract IVom a letter of Hk.nkv Ondekdo.nk, .Ir.Jssti., of .Taina- 
i<-a, Long Island, is too important not to l)c made |)nbhc. 

"Hardly one in a thousand would have dreamed that the 
Dutch ever had any thing to do with Maine. My attention 
was called to by two documents relating to the claims of 
Dfllio i^^!}'^""'^ (Hegeman ? a Knickerbocker name) for inju- 
ries sustained during his mission to F<:innquid. This wag 



11 

some years ago, and I had to enquire where Pemaquid was, 
and wondered what, in the world the Dutch had to do there. 
I found one of the papers in the U. S. Collection of our Col- 
onial Documents in the State Library at Albany, at the end, 
or nearly so, of Vol. 47. (There is no Index.) "Lucretia 
Heyenan, widow of Denis, petitions Governor and Council 
for relief. Her husband was sent by Gov. Sloughter with 
letters to confer with the Indians at Pemaquid, who had sided 
with the French in the war of 1691. He reached Penob- 
squkl and was persuaded by the French to come on shore, 
when ije was seized and sent to Canada and kept a prisoner 
there 2 years, then sent to France. So that il was 3 years 
and 3 months before he returned home. i^50 v^as paid her. 
Vol. 39 has a petition from Denys Heyenan himself (1694) 
in vvhich he states his wife is a Prisoner in Canada. 

Vol. 45 has affidavit of 3no. (S)oniclisse who was deck 
hand on board the vessel that took Heyenan to Pemaquid. 
Vol. 47 has affidavit of iJUanicI Ucmscn to same effect. The 
The names are all iSutcl], 

1 have abridged the above very much, but could (write) 
them (out) more at length if they were of any use. The 
originals are more full than the abstract I made. 

Perhaps the preceding refer to too late a period for your 
purpose, ft is the winding up of" the Dutch Colony 1 should 
think." 

It would seem from all these that the tHIUtd) who were even 
at that time experiencing so much injustice and persecution 
at the hands of the French in Holland, were not to be exempt, 
in a measure, from the same suMering in their new homes on 
this continent, and that the ocean was to prove no barrier to 
the woes which the ruthless hand of war made so fearful 
wherever the industrious and the enterprising sought, how- 
ever distant, to v^orship, cultivate and dwell in peace. 

At home about this time horrors were multiplied. 

Between iDm-ben and Cegben, on the Old Rhine, in Noord 
Holland, the road passes the beautiful villages of Ztvcimmer- 
datn and Bodegravc, together with the first city, so fearfully 
"memorable as the scenes of the atrocities committed by the 



m 



French army, under Marshal Luxemburg, in 1072. Their 
cruelly, as dcscribeil 1>\ Voltaire, is not exaggerated: so 
great \va.s the liatred which it inspired in the minds of the 
Dutcli who were witnesses of their conduct, that descriptions 
of the war, called "i^niUGcljc (Jijraniic," were written and 
printed as school-books Ibr their chiklren to read, calculated 
to hand down an inheritance of hate ihr their enemies to fu- 
ture generations." 

Ki'GKNE Srii, in his ''Histoire de la Marine Frangaisc" 
(11. 2SG-"7), Frenchman as he is, cannot resist transcribing 
from the "Annales des Provinces Unies" the account of these 
monstrous horrors, the natural and inevitable consequences 
of the invasion of Holland by Louis XIV. 

^'^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 

"The twcj villages of Zwammerdam and Bodcgrave, com- 
prising six hundred dwellings, were reduced to ashes ; but 
one remained, which escaped by accident the fury of the 
s(jldiers and the -reneral conflagration. The destruction of 
the lieretics churches was made a lelioious duty ; not one 
was spared. The public buildings where justice was ad- 
ministered experienced the same fate. The soldiers who 
had conceived this cruel design issued forth from Utrecht 
armed with matches and other combustible materials. They 
shut u[) the father and mother with their children in their 
own home in order to destroy a whole family at one blow, 
-.imi when the ashes and ruins ol the houses were removed 
a (|uantity of hall" consumed corpses were discovered, as 
well as infants burnt in the arms of those who had aiven 
them life. A mother whom decrepid old age hud rendered 
blind, and an object worthy of compassion, was murdered in 
the presence of four children who supported her, and had, 
with them, one tomb amid the flames which reduced them 
all to ashes. As if cruelty was diversified lo the utmost, 
another matron who had reared an e(]ual number of children 
beheld them murdered before her eyes, and was then immolated 
herself by tlie fury of the butchers. The Prince of Orange, 
who arrived two days afterwards in these places, founcl a 
number of children whose arms and legs had been cut ofl', 



13 

and other mutilated bodies, which he left a short time without 
burial, and exposed to the eyes of those who passed, that they 
might learn irorn this frightful spectacle what they might ex- 
pect from the (Roman Catholic*) French. The soldiers divert- 
ed themselves by seizing these innocent creatures by the feet, 
tossing them into the air and catching them upon the points of 
their pikes and swords, happj' thus to die since some were 
afterwards precipitated into the flames, and new torments 
were devised to deprive the others of life. They violated 
dauohters in the oresence of their mothers ; wives under the 
eyes of their husbands ; and the (French) soldiers who could 
not find a sufficient number of objects to gratify their brutal- 
ity, because they were too numerous, satisfied in turn their 
infamous passion on one and the same person, even to the 
number of twenty and upwards, and then spared such the 
misery of surviving their shame by casting them into the 
water and the fire. Avarice joined to cruelty animated the 
officer as well as the soldier. They (the R. C. officers and 
soldiers) suspended men in the chimneys of their houses and 
kindled therein sreat fires in order that suffocated and burnt, 
in turn, by the smoke of the turf and the flames which burst 
forth afterwards, they might be compelled to discover the 
money they possessed, and often which they did not possess ; 
to such a degree were they (the French) victims of an im- 
agination equally sordid and barbarous. 

Ordinary executions and cruelties not sufficing to glut the 
fury of the soldiery, they (the French) invented extraordinary 
ones. They stripped the young girls and women whom they 
had violated, and chased them entirely naked into the open 
country, where they perished with cold. Q^A Swiss offi- 
cer finding two girls, of a respectable family, in this state, 
gave them his cloak and some linen which he had, and, pro- 
ceeding to his post, recommended them to a French offi- 
cer, who. very far from protecting them, having abused them 
in the (open) street, abandoned them afterwards to the lust of 
his soldiers, who, after having outraged them to the utmost, 
cut of!" their breasts, larded (pierced) them with the ramrods 



"•''Espknationa in ( — ), asterisks and capitals inserted by translator. 



I \ 

of iheir musUeis and Ictt iheir iKnlies exposed on the levee 
which leads Irotn Bodegrave lo Woerden..^ They cut ofl" 
the breasts of other women, whose wounds they afterwards 
sprinkled with pepper, salt, sometimes even gun powder to 
which they set lire, lo make them die more cruelly. One of 
these wretches who, at Bodegrave, had the barbarity lo cutoff" 
the breasts of a woman in the act of lying in, and to put pep- 
per thereupon, died in the hospital of Nimwegen in a fright- 
ful siiiie of <lespair of a i'renzy caused by the violent remorse 
of an outraged conscience, which presented continually to his 
mind the imafje of this iemale, whose agonized cries he im- 
agined he still heard. They attached others by the hair or 
under the arm pits lo trees in order that they might remain 
exposed in a disgraceful nudity to all the inclemencies of the 
atmosphere. A boatman was nailed by the hand lo the 
mast of his vessel ami his wife violated before his eyes, 
while he was forbidden to turn them lor a moment from so 
infamous a spectacle, under painof deatli. Many other hus- 
bantis experienced the same fate, and were compelled by 
blows of the cudgel or the flat of the sword to be eye wit- 
nesses of similar outrages. In fine the\'^did not eve/i respect 
the bodies of the dead. Two corpses on their way to burial 
were stripped of the shrouds which covered them ; the one 
was thrown into the fire with its winding sheet, the other was 
dragged out of it and had the water of the canal for a sepul- 
chre. 



****** 
Eugene Sue then enters upon an indignant review of r...:,c 
itdernal outrages. 

"Lei us recall — the writer has endeavored to translate lit- 
erally—that long chain of villainies, of crimes, of sacrilegious 
venality, of perjuries, of corruptions, which connects those two 
years, 1G70 and 1672; from that infamous treaty concluded 
in the midst of peace against the Scucu |^3roinnci'S to the de- 
vastation of that unhappy Republic ; from the prostitution ol 
Mademoiselle de Keroualle to the new treason of Louis XIV. 
towards England ; to the massacre of the brothers be tDilU. 



15 

****** 

, "But that which perhaps is still more frightful, or that which 
in truth calls forth a smile at its air, sufficiently Homeric, is 
to see that from the great poet even to the grave historian, 
that from the prince of the church even to the vicar of Jesus 
Christ (the Pope), each wished to pay, upon his knees, his 
cowardly tribute of ignoble flatteries, of shameless and wick- 
ed praises, with regard to this frightful invasi in, its disgrace- 
ful causes and sacrileges and its sanguinary results." 

"Thus the severe Boileau, the great satirist, the pitiless 
censor, in his cold and base declamation, not content with 
shouting ^^glortj to Louis /" grows audaciously merry again at 
the uncouthness of the names of '■Hhose snivking ruins subjected 
by the incnmparnble conqueror.'''' He finds nothing but silly 
pleasantries, unworthy of even a college pedant, in connec- 
tion with those unhappy, pillaged, devastated cities, which 
could only extinguish the flames which devoured them by 
engulfine themselves beneath the waters of the sea." 






"Then, after the satirist, comes the grand tragedian, the his- 
toriographer of France, the tender and religious Racine. A 
person should read his "Precis de la Guerre de .1672" to be 
able to believe ; to remain confounded at the tone of placid, 
ingenuous simpficity with which he exposes the griefs of the 
"great king" against that little republic, ''whom her riches and 
abundance rendered formidable to her neighbors." " 

Listen to him : 

"This little republic monopolized the commerce of the 
East Indies, where she had almost entirely destroyed the 
power of the Portuguese. She treated on equal terms with 
England, over whom she had gained glorious advantages, 
and whose ships of war she had recently burned in the 
Thames ; and at last blinded by prosperity she commenced 
to despise the hand which had so often established and sus- 
tained her. She pretended to give the law to Europe, she 
leagued herself with the enemies of France and boasted that 
she alone had set hounds to the conquests of the king — (always 
that folly about the medal of Joshua). She oppressed the 
Roman Catholics" (what a falsehood of Holland, of all coun- 



iries ever llie most toleranl) "in all countries of her dominion, 
and opposed llie French commerce in the Indies. In a word 
she forgot nothing which could draw down upon her the storm 
which was about to overwhelm her. — The King, tired of sul- 
fering her insolences, declared war against the Hollanders early 
ill the spring and marched against them." 

"Then after many assertions as singular as the i'oregoing : 
Never did a prince (Louis XIV.) keep his word so religioushj . — ll 
is a nialler i>cnrcrbj susceptible of belief that in the fidelity which 
he (Louis XIV) maintained towards his allies, he ahcaijs evinced 
greater anxietij for (took greater care of) tJicir interests than for 



h 



as oivn. 



"But this is not all," resumes Sue, "after the poets with 
their pagan allegories, after the fulsome Olympian adulations 
should succeed (in order) the servile Christian flatteries. Af- 
ter thundering Jove, after the ancient Rhine surprised among 
the timorous water nymphs amid his green rushes we have" 
(according to these exalted sycophants) "Jehovah crowning 
with victory the work so amorously well commenced by 
Mademoiselle de Keronalle ; we have the god of armies might- 
ily aiding Louvois to sadly embarass Colbert." 

"In a word it is no longer Racine, Boileau, Bossuet, those 
elevated master spirits of reason and intelligence, who exalt 
and consecrate in marvelous lan£Tua£;e the most disgraceful 
carnal appetites, the most horrible perjuries, the most fero- 
cious and impious enterprises ; it is now that personage, who, 
according to the hierarchy of the (Romanist) christian world, 
is just inferior to God but superior to kings, the most imposing 
personification of human virtues, he, who throned upon the 
summit of the social edifice, alone receives from God the de- 
vine and solemn mission of representing him upon earth in all 
his majestic purity ; it is he who can bind and loose here below ; 
it is the Pope, in a word Pope Clement X, who writes with 
his pontilicial hand the following brief to Louis XIV, who 
was then resting from his conquests in the beautiful arms of 
Madame de Montespan, after having just exiled her inconven- 
ient and sorrowful husband." 



17 

"To our dear son in Jesus Christ apostolic greeting and 
benediction ! 

"The universe contemplating the overthrow by your viclo- 
rioys arnns of a power raised upon the ruins of a legitimate 
aulhorit}', and otherwise injurious to the interests of royahy, 
felicitates Your Majesty, whose youthlul brow is decorated 
with glorious triumphs and adorned with magnificent spoils. 
The bowels of our pontificial charity cannot longer restrain 
themselves, and we behold with a joy equal to your own the 
augmentation of true religion combined with the success ot 
Your Majesty, a joy which corresponds with the grandeur of 
those powers with which the divine goodness has invested 
us. In effect the churches restored to the (Roman) Catliolics, 
the religious discipline re-established in the cloisters, the 
priests fulfilling the divers functions of divine worship, the in- 
habitants enabled to practice the truth without restraint ; 
such are the results which suffice to prove that Your Majes- 
ty's mission is from on high, since it thus advances with the 
stride of a giant in the path of victory. 

"Permit then, most Christian King,in orderto consolidate the 
glorious results already obtained both by war wnd by peace, 
our zeal and our apostolic affection to excite even 3'ei more 
your royal piety, that, thus, you may better be led to under- 
stand upon several points our nuncio, the archbishop ot Flor- 
ence. 

"Meanwhile we will not neglect to lay at the foot of the 
throne of divine mercy the paternal sentiments with which 
our heart is filled for your preservation, and the success of 
our prayers for the glory of God to the end that the apostol- 
ic benediction, which we bestow upon you, may derive its 
confirniation and strength from that propitious source. 

"Given at Rome, at St. Mary the Greater, under the seal of 
the fishermen, the 23d Augu^^l, 167'2, the Hid year of our 
pontificate. 

Archives of foreign affairs, Rome, 1672, — Sup[)lement. 

Let the foregoing speak for themselves. Contrast the 
atrocities in Holland sanctioned by the "most christian king," 
for had he not endorsed them he would not have justified the- 



18 

subsequent devaslation of the Palatinate, the persecution of 
the Protestants; the dragooning of his Reformed suhjects : 
the revocation of the Edict of Nantes ; the breaking on the 
wheel, the burning, tlie racking of evangelical pastors for 
teaching God's word in all simplicity — and the judg(nents 
which followed. Starvation, ruin, misery, invasion, humilia- 
tion, gathered like avenging furies about the last days of this 
"most christian king." The Almighty answered the prayers 
of the Romanist vice-god with curses instead of blessings. 
Defeat and disaster crowned the "great king" with ashes in- 
stead of laurels. The tomb closed upon the magnificent Sul- 
tan of France amid the execrations of his own people, and 
jests not sighs, congratulations not tears, trooped along side 
the funeral procession which conducted the remains of the 
greatest egotist in history to the resting place of his ancestors. 
That prince of Orange whose temporary defeat moved "the 
bowels of pontificial charity" lived to move those same bow- 
els with a lively sympathy in his own behalf for the humilia- 
tion of that "most christian king" whose Christianity was the 
Christianity of despotic self-exaltation. The armies of j)rotest- 
ant Holland and England trampled under foot those blood 
stained banners which had Hoated so triumphantly over the 
ruins, the ashes, the violations, the murders, the tortures, the 
sacrileges of their defenders, and France drank blood enough 
within the next century and a half to quench the most raging 
appetite for slaughter. The congratulations of Pope Clem- 
ent X. were echoed by the execrations of Pope Pius VII.; the 
rejoicings of the restored Romanist priests of Holland were 
echoed by the wails of the priests of France beneath the axe 
of the guillotine, the sabre, the pike, the bayonet of their fel- 
low citizens. The smoke of the Dutch villages was answer- 
ed with an hundred fold density by the steam of the slaugh- 
ter pits of France, and if such are the responses which await 
the papal benedictions far be those benedictions from us and 
ours. Clement blessed Louis XIV. and his royal sun stooped, 
paled and set in gloom. Childless he closed his eyes in the 
full light of Holland's triumph and England's glory. His 
great grandson and successor died a loathsome object, desert- 



19 

ed, despairing, corruption itself even before the grave exert- 
ed its sovereignty. And that great grandson's successor and 
grandson swallowed the ver}^ dregs of the cup of 
humiliation, and then poured forth his life upon the scaf- 
fold, and his poor boy perished, when, how we know not, an 
object of compassion to all who hear his pitiable story, by a 
fate which wrenches the heart of every father who has read 
the narrative. 

Well might my ancestor's kinsman — writing from Holland, 
22d July, 1707, a few years after the horrors of the French 
invasion, when the ebbing tide had borne back to France the 
miseries it had borne on thence so proudly with its flood, but 
while the storm was yet abroad npon the continent, ejaculate, 
"We earnestly hope that God may soon exempt us from this 
ruinous warfare, and graciously grant us a lasting peace ; 
but above all peace, that liberty of conscience which, in val- 
ue, far exceeds all human powers of estimate." 

(Johan de Peyster, in Rotterdam, to Johan de Peyster, in 
New York.) 

Martyrs of Holland, in the old and new world, vengeance 
was with the Lord so impiously invoked to sanction your suf- 
ferings, and he repaid and will repay to the uttermost. 

But, alas ! man in all ages seems — without the real influ- 
ences of true religious training and discipline — to be, and 
have been, the same untamed, ferocious animal. Christian- 
ity, at all periods, has found some strongholds impregnable 
even to its appeals, even in the midst of communities pos- 
sessing the highest development of secular civilization. 

A few days since has taught the world that education and 
the influences which are supposed to render men gentle, 
could not restrain an American community from imitating, 
or a county from applauding, conduct which — in the writer's 
opinion — would disgrace the most barbarous-unconverted or 
fanatical-converted horde of the most excitable race. 

1IIO0C gill, 

TivoLi, Dutchess Co., S. N. Y. 

2M September, 1858. 



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